Based on Roper's description, the southern shore of Lake Italy is a slog:
"Invisible from the outlet, a half-mile-long section far along the lake's southern shore contains enormous, unstable blocks of granite. Although this side is passable, it cannot be recommended."
The route to Dancing Bear Pass from Gabbott Pass would thus require either tackling this nasty section of shoreline, or backtracking around the southern shore of the lake from the outlet. If you start from the outlet of Lake Italy and take the most direct line up the inlet of Jumble Lake (I've never been in there, no idea how nasty it is), it's about 0.5 miles further total distance to reach White Bear Lake via Dancing Bear Pass than taking White Bear Pass, and you also miss the incredible views down Hilgard Branch, which are really necessary IMHO to make up for the drab Lake Italy basin. Also, if you have the beta, White Bear Pass isn't hard at all - just traverse to the Northeast a ways from the saddle before descending, and if ascending, I feel like the nice line is easy spot.
In other words, the options rank up like this (starting from the Toe Lake outflow and ending at the Eastern shore of White Bear Lake):
Dancing Bear via nasty south shore direct route, ascending Jumble Lake inflow creek: 2.4mi, +1140'/-433'
Dancing Bear via north shore and south shore backtrack, ascending Jumble Lake inflow creek: 4.2mi, +1200'/-500'
White Bear: 3.6mi, +1183'/-478'
The time saved by that 1.2 miles of distance reduction will almost certainly be eaten up by the time spent dealing with the nasty half-mile of blocky shoreline, and you miss the lovely scenery of Brown/Teddy Bear Lakes, the view down Hilgard Branch, and the awesome cascades of the lower Lake Italy outflow area.